Hummus Or Just Crazy Flavoured Dips?

Having lived in the Middle East for so long and traveled widely and written about the food, we have to admit that we consider ourselves to be something of connoisseurs of the cuisines of the region – often very mistakenly reduced to just being called ‘Lebanese food’. We love a great hummus and nobody does hummus better than the Syrians and Lebanese, although you can get an equally good hummus in the Gulf region, especially in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Another admission: we’re purists to some extent too. The silly hummus restaurants and hummus culture we saw in New York (such as the stuff mentioned in this story) made us cringe. What would our friends back in the Middle East think, we wondered? To them – and us – hummus is essentially a chickpea dip, consisting of chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini (a sesame seed paste), garlic, salt, and olive oil. And nothing else.

For many years, our weekend breakfasts would consist of freshly-made hummus, scooped up using a piece of torn, still warm, Arabic bread, along with some tangy olives, white cheese, and strong Arabic coffee or mint tea. Breakfast was one of our favourite weekend rituals in the UAE. When we’d stay in and order home delivered ‘Lebanese’ food for dinner, we’d get falafel or kibbeh, salads such as tabbouleh or fattoush, and a mixed grill, and hummus would always be central to that scrumptious spread.

When we spotted these crazy coloured dips at all the deli counters at Vienna’s Naschmarkt, at first we thought the pink dip was tarama or taramosalata, the Turkish/Greek fish roe dip, and that the orange dip was some sort of Mexican chilli dip, but then we realised they were different flavours of ‘hummus’!

Considering we’d been hearing stallholders and shop-keepers’ conversations in Turkish and German (Turkman? Germish?) as we wandered around the Naschmarkt, it made sense that Turkish immigration, which began in post-war Austria, would have had a profound influence on local food culture.

But coriander hummus? Seriously, presenting these dips at a traditional Turkish restaurant in rural Turkey would cause a riot. Lara had to buy some. Pretty colours and food? She couldn’t resist. So we took some home for a taste test at the apartment…

We tried the curry, chili, wasabi, and beetroot flavours of ‘hummus’ and while they were all tasty, frankly, they weren’t really hummus. They didn’t taste anything like hummus as we know it. In this case, the relatively anodyne base of the hummus is used in much the same way as someone might make a dip from cream cheese or sour cream. It’s a base and has no resemblance to the heavenly hummus we know and love so well. I’m sure it’s a far healthier alternative to creamy dips you buy in the supermarket and we recommend you try it, but think of it as a healthier beetroot dip or wasabi dip and so on, rather than a beetroot ‘hummus’…

Serve them, but just don’t expect to get a positive reaction to them if you serve them at a shindig with Middle Eastern guests and call them ‘hummus’. Maybe just call them dips and leave the name ‘hummus’ to, well, hummus.

As with pizza, some traditional dishes, traditional methods of production and ingredients lists that can be codified, need to be protected. In the same way that sparkling wine produced outside of Champagne is no longer labelled as ‘Champagne’. It won’t make consumption of it any less enjoyable, just less misleading.

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Author

A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, The Guardian, National Geographic Traveller, Wanderlust, Get Lost, Travel+Leisure Asia, DestinAsian, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored some 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

There are 8 comments

We had an extremely more-ish one in Egypt … we were told it was made from puréed carrots, and we were NOT to call it hummus.

There were dips made from purées of several different vegetables; I did write the names down, but I can’t find the notebook (it was 17 years and a house-move ago!) but the chef was most insistent that it was only hummus if it was made with chickpeas.

i’m in agreement. Hummus should follow the recipe that you listed above. That’s not to say i might not enjoy these dips (I pretty much like anything if you mix it up with chick peas) But I would call them dips.

Well this is a topic near and dear to my heart b/c I make and sell hummus commercially here in Phnom Penh (and did so in Tanzania as well), although I have no Middle Eastern roots. I just noticed a void in the expat boutique-y products and decided to fill it. If you come back through PP, let me know and I will hook you up!

I agree with you about the purity of hummus. Although, if I brought my hummus to Lebanon, I’m sure they’d dismiss it as inferior. I like mine with a more balanced flavor, with none of the ingredients overpowering another. When I have eaten hummus at Middle Eastern restaurants, its always been stronger on the tahini and lemon flavors, which I like, but not overwhelmingly.

The colors of those hummuses are so off-putting. I’m sure the flavors are complimentary, but ick. If I’m going to add flavor to my hummus, I would do it as a stir-in-at-the-moment-of-consumption – like a Dairy Queen Blizzard! The only ingredient I would add ahead of time is jalapeno pepper (would stir in after hummus is all blended) so that it can percolate inside and give it some nice heat.

Rebecca, having lived in the Middle East for so long, we’re very picky about our hummus – so much so that here in Australia we can’t stand the local brands and have resorted to making it ourselves!
Indeed, the Lebanese are very picky with their hummus and baba ghanoush – after a few attempts mine was deemed ‘acceptable’ to the Lebanese crew I used to work with…
Have you done the variation of hummus with meat (lamb)? Taking to the extreme, here’s a version that I used to have almost every weekend in Sydney at a cafe called Fez although this one is by Neil Perry:http://www.rockpool.com/2011/08/hummus-with-ground-beef-and-pine-nuts-good-weekend-july-30/

PS: Love kimchi, the little starters in Korean restaurants are nearly always the highlight of the meal for me!

We love Al Falamanki too – that was where we had our last meal in Beirut on our last trip a few years actually. Though they didn’t have the bizarre flavours of tahini or hummus that they had in Vienna. Some of them were extremely odd – not sure who thought they were a good idea but interesting to see how they had taken off.

About Grantourismo

Globetrotting professional travel writing and photography team Lara Dunston and Terence Carter see their life as one big grand tour of the globe. They're going slow, local and experiential; they’ve travelling slowly and sustainably, living like locals, and doing and learning things. Lara and Terence are on a quest to explore more authentic and enriching ways to travel and make travel more meaningful and memorable. Read more about Lara Dunston and Terence Carter.